Ray Rychleski described a significant difference between coaching college and pro football by the way he greeted players after games when he worked for the Indianapolis Colts.
Prior to joining the Colts in 2009, Rychleski had coached 28 years at the college level. When he saw former players who he’d coached, they came over in the post-game scrum to give him a hug. But when he coached against former Colts who had been traded away or signed elsewhere as free agents, they merely waved.
“It was a little more businesslike, so I was really excited to be back in college,” Rychleski said.
At Georgia Tech, he’ll have plenty of players to develop relationships with as well as coach. Rychleski replaced Dave Walkosky, who resigned abruptly at the beginning of May after two years as coach Paul Johnson’s first coach designated to oversee only special teams. Rychleski will coach special teams but also assist offensive line coach Mike Sewak.
Johnson is hoping Rychleski can be a happy medium. Prior to Walkosky’s hire, Johnson’s standard staff arrangement was to have two offensive line coaches and to split up special-teams duties among the staff. But with subpar special-teams play, Johnson hired Walkosky, who helped improve special teams, but the offensive line did not meet expectations last year. At his last three college jobs — Wake Forest, Maryland and South Carolina — Rychleski coached special teams and tight ends.
He has begun digging into the Tech offensive playbook, learning the personnel and meeting with team members to prepare for preseason training camp at the end of July.
“Getting to know the personnel is huge right now,” he said. “I don’t know what they can do. I’m going to rely on Coach Johnson and the position coaches when we start doing depth charts for this.”
Rychleski coached at Wake Forest from 1993-2000, Maryland from 2001-2007 (where the head coach was former Tech offensive coordinator Ralph Friedgen) and South Carolina in 2008. He jumped to the NFL at the invitation of Colts coach Jim Caldwell (who was head coach at Wake Forest) and stayed there from 2009-11. After the staff was fired, he coached in the CFL last year for the Montreal Alouettes.
It was after the staff change in Indianapolis that Rychleski interviewed with Johnson for the job that ultimately went to Walkosky. The two connected again in May.
“He brings a long background with special teams and everywhere he’s been, they’ve been fairly successful special teams-wise,” Johnson said.
He’ll have the benefit of having a kicker (Harrison Butker), punter (Ryan Rodwell), returners (Jamal Golden and DeAndre Smelter) and long snappers (Sean Tobin and Trevor Stroebel) all with significant experience.
“People look at it (with the thinking), ‘Well, he’s not focusing on (special teams),’” he said. “Well, yeah, I am. There’s enough time in the day. I’ve done it. I know it. I think it also is going to help with more eyes on the offensive line, that they’re going to get better. As I said to Coach Johnson, ‘You’ve got a chance to kill two birds with one stone.’ I want to do that.”
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